Evening Bath Incident
by Zamael
Summary: Kataang, oneshot. Aang spies on bathing Katara. Hilarity ensues. Rated for naughtiness and minor smut.


AN: This is the first time I write fanfic, like, ever, and it's already not suitable for children? Man.

R&R, you know the drill.

--

Night was falling to the Fire Nation. For most people, the decent, hard-working kind, this signified that the day's about to end, and for most people, the common evening rituals included not only dinner, but also getting washed up: There was nothing like a nice, long hot bath to clean up the body and mind, sweep away all the worries of the day, and let the battered muscles forget all that hard work it had endured just a while back.

But bathing, as important and relevant as it was, was not part of Toph's daily routines. She couldn't care less about her own looks, or if she happened to be a bit dirty - one of the better parts of being blind, in her opinion. Sokka was slightly more interested about his personal hygiene, but he thought getting washed up once a week was more than enough, especially with no girls around to impress. And then there was Aang, who had no such routines whatsoever, only taking a bath whenever he felt it was necessary, which was usually two or three times a week. Momo always licked himself clean with his tongue, and Appa just didn't care.

That only left Katara, and she considered it very important to keep herself clean, body and soul, and thus, if there was a chance for her to do so, she bathed daily. She would often relax in the warm water for hours at time, lying there in her own element, forgetting about everything that bothered or worried her. Both Sokka and Toph considered this behavior "freakish", with Sokka commenting on how anyone could spend so long in there.

And today she felt especially filthy. It had been a hot day in the first place, and she had spent several hours training with Aang and Toph. There had been a yet another argument between her and the earthbending girl, and now she had mud and dirt and grass all over herself, not to mention being very tired, hot, and aching all over the place, especially at her left side where Toph had hit her with a rock. The sun was setting, the day was almost over, and Katara looked forward to spend the rest of it in the water, well away from the antics and bothers of the rest of the team. There was a small waterfall she had spotted a short distance upriver, and that's where she was heading, because she liked showers as much, if more, than mere bathing.

Something rustled in the trees to her right. She stopped for a second and took a glimpse to the direction, but saw nothing. For a moment, she considered investigating further, but the bruise on her side voted against it: Probably just some small animal. Not worth checking out. And so she just shrugged and continued walking.

--

Aang cursed silently when Katara stopped. Did she hear him? He was taking a horrible risk, spying on his friend: There would be a world of hurt if he was caught. But he considered the risk well worth taking, and when she walked again, he sighed in relief and continued onward, as stealthily as ever.

They were in a small forest, which gave him plenty of places to hide, with its trees and bushes and all. Thus he was not worried about being seen, only being heard. And his skills of silent movement did indeed leave much to improve, and several times he made more than enough noise to attract the attention of a Yu Yan archer, which truthfully wasn't all that much, and thankfully not enough for Katara to notice. Only several minutes of walking (or so it felt for Aang), and they arrived to a small waterfall upwards of the same river they had practiced on earlier.

On this spot, Katara stopped, and so did Aang - creeping as close as possible to her without being noticed, which was maybe ten feet away, behind a large bush. The setting sun cast large shadows of her, illuminating her in a golden aura of light: At that point, all his selfish motives and desires of coming here were swept away and replaced by the simple notion of what a beautiful creature she really was. It was during this short moment that his love for Katara began to nudge somewhere within his mind, and soon his common sense and Avatar Spirit joined in to the chorus:

_Could I really commit such crimes against the girl I really, really, love and care about?_

_I don't think I want to get frozen into a popsicle again!_

_Is this really what someone in my position does? Spy on a bathing girl? Shame on me!_

But then the moment was over, and all three voices were beaten to pulp by his libido, which had broken out of its shackles at his metaphorical attic where no one ever visited, and was now running rampant within his head, smashing and crushing any other thought that looked like it would voice its opinion.

The entire thought process had taken less than two seconds of time, and when his mind cleared again (as much as it was possible, anyway), Aang saw Katara still standing there, next to the river, fully clothed. She was stretching her body, reaching her hands up to the air as much as they went, throwing her head back towards the flaming sky, her eyes closed. Then, without breaking the rest of the stance, she brought her hands to the hem of her classy Fire Nation top, and slowly, very, very, agonizingly slowly, pulled the cloth away, revealing some more chocolate skin and white underwear. Running one hand through her hair, and letting down her Fire Nation disguise top-knot, she held the fabric at her arm's length for several moments, before letting to fall to the ground. She had kept smiling through the whole thing, in a strangely familiar kind, the kind of look on her face like she really enjoyed the act of undressing. For Aang, this was a totally new side of her.

Next on the line were Katara's shoes, which she casually kicked away from her feet, without bothering to give them any more attention. They were very nice shoes, though not that good for dancing, but were regardless discarded on the ground like they were trash. Though he dismissed the thought as ridiculous, Aang was almost compeletely certain that she threw a quick, seductive glance to the bushes he was hiding in, right before removing his skirt as well, letting it fall to her feet, resulting in her usual training clothes, which she used whenever they practiced waterbending together. His heart pounding in his chest, he couldn't help but wonder at how exactly was this outfit, despite being exactly the same he had seen so many times in the past, so much more appealing to him right now?

Another thought also processed in his mind, this one about how many people would stretch and flex their muscles before bathing - he certainly didn't, and neither did Sokka, as far as he knew - but Katara did, as it appeared, and in an incredibly alluring way at that. Plus, for some inexcplicable reason, all her back-stretchings and leg-stretchings and things were always done in such a way that he had the best possible view of her - culminating in its logical climax when she brought her fingers together with her toes, coincidentally (because surely it was just a coincidence?) pointing her rear straight at Aang. And although her undergarments were designed in such way that this did not reveal anything new or interesting to him, it was regardless a very arousing sight. His face was burning, his heart tried to escape through his ribs, and he tasted iron in his upper lip: Investigating the latter with his finger he discovered that his nose was bleeding.

And that smile. That mysterious, charming, familiar smile that never left her face even for a second...

Now he remembered where he had seen it before: It was well past hundred years ago, when Aang had, Along with his friend Kuzon, gone on a nightly adventure to investigate a certain building in the Fire Nation capitol, one that children were not allowed to enter. Sneaking inside through the back door, avoiding all the grown-ups, they were expecting to discover hidden secrets and great treasures beyond the imagination of any nine-year-old. Instead, they had found themselves in a dimly-lighted bar, looking at dancing women with extremely little clothing on. They did not understand in the slightest how this was so exciting to all the adults cheering and whistling at the ladies, and they certainly had no idea how this was forbidden from them or interesting in any way. Eventually they had come to a conclusion that it was some kind of a hidden code, and spent nearly half an hour trying to decipher it, before being discovered and chased away.

The face Katara was currently wearing was fundamentally the same those women had had, although sweeter, more innocent, and far more attractive. While she wasn't exactly dancing, much less so for a crowd of men, somehow Aang was compeletely certain that had there been a pole on the scene, she would currently be wrapped around it. And though he still had no idea of what was going on, he had begun to realize that perhaps there really wasn't any secret codes involved, and he sort of understood why adults discovered this kind of stuff so interesting. Not only that, but instead of watching ugly old hags with makeup, on stage was his very own beautiful Katara - who was, unlike those faceless, nameless women, his best friend and practically a member of the family, not to mention a long-living secret crush, which increased the Forbidden Fruit feeling he was having to pure cosmic levels.

Still holding that very same look, she had now, to Aang's great excitement, begun to remove the last bits of her clothing: In what was an excruciatingly slow process, never before revealed parts of her was now finally being uncovered to his hungry eyes. While what he currently saw was exciting enough, it was the thought about what he _would soon see, _trying to imagine what was still covered in those final wrappings, that provoked the biggest reaction on his face, and in his heart and between his legs. The last bits of his rational thought grew up louder for a little while, telling him how he should leave before it was too late, but they were quickly silenced by his recently awakened physical desires.

But then, at the last possible moment before something truly interesting would have been exposed for his organs of sight, Katara flicked her wrist casually. She was smiling all the wider, and this time also blushing, as great clouds of mist appeared from the river with a loud hiss: Aang's jaw dropped when they covered most of her body into a blurry silhouette, only leaving her head, neck, and a bit of her feet fully to his sight, and he almost groaned in disappointment when he saw the top part of her undergarments going over her head, while the bottom half fell to her feet. It felt extremely frustrating, yet stimulating at the same time, to see her standing right there, stark naked, but with all the important details covered by the cursed fog. At this point, his rationality won a decisive round against his libido as he considered jumping at her from his hiding place.

Next, she waved her hand at his direction, and his last sight of her, before something flew through the mist and landed on his face, was of her grinning widely at the exact spot where he was hidden. It took him a second to realize what was now lying on top of his eyes, but he was driven compeletely over the edge when it hit him. She had thrown... _She had actually thrown him with-_ He could no longer think at all, because his brain now had a sudden and serious lack of blood: His heart, beating wildly in his chest, was guiding it all either to his cheeks, to his water chakra, or out of the body through his nose. By this point, he could have been ambushed by a battalion of Fire Nation soldiers without him noticing. Carefully, gracefully, and respectfully, he lifted the fabric from his face, to take a better look at it.

When he saw the approaching tidal wave it was already too late.

--

A/N: I've always wanted to write "organs of sight".


End file.
